French with Nicole

  The world’s most famous cycling race began this weekend but did you know there is more to the Tour de France than bikes and Lycra! Surrounding the race itself is a carnival atmosphere of floats, live music and free products from sponsors. The towns, villages and hamlets on the route will spend months preparing for their 30 seconds of fame as the riders race through and then spend years talking about the day the Tour came to town. I still remember, at Junior school – only a few years ago…, being allowed to line the pavement outside the school to watch the tour go by! The stages often pass through some of the most spectacular and often rarely seen parts of France. So even if you aren’t into cycling, it is worth watching the race to enjoy the stunning scenery. Want to find out more about the race itself? Then read on! The Tour de France was created in 1903 by Henri Desgrange, a cyclist and journalist. The famous race attracts thousands of enthusiastic cycle followers and usua...

The b lue plaque commemorating the stay of the Emperor Louis  Napoleon III  in King Street (St James) is the earliest surviving  plaque in London . The use of the colour blue was rare and not often repeated at the time as it was expensive to produce. It is actually the only blue   plaque installed during the recipient's lifetime. Following the fall of the Second French Empire in 1870 and exiled from France, Napoleon III (Bonaparte’s nephew), his wife Eugénie and their son the Prince Imperial sought refuge in England. The family eventually took residence at Camden Place in Chislehurst where the Emperor spent the rest of his life. He was consequently buried at St Mary’s Roman Catholic Church in Chislehurst. Following the death of the Prince Imperial at the age of 23, the grief-stricken Empress Eugénie set about to establish a monument to her family and founded St Michael Abbey in Farnborough as a mausoleum for her husband and son. The abbey featured an Imperia...

  It is fair to say that the French numbering system is rather bizarre and can be challenging! I do sympathise with students learning French as getting to grips with numbers is tricky! For example, “ quatre-vingt-dix-neuf ” (99) translates as “ four twenty ten nine ” – rather than ninety-nine! Another example, “ soixante-dix-sept ” (77) translates as “ sixty ten seven ” and rather than the more logical seventy-seven! Starting at zero, i t is fairly smooth sailing until you get to “ soixante-neuf ” (69). Then funny phrases start to creep in, as there is not a separate word in French for seventy, or eighty, or even ninety for that matter. Even a proficient French speaker will remember that all-too-familiar moment where you freeze as you are jotting down a phone number: what you thought was sixty something turns out to be 75! In order to get to grips with these higher numbers it seems that you need to be good at mental maths…  “ Soixante-dix-sept ” (77) for example, equates to...